


Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)

by raisedbymoogles



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Crossdressing, F/M, Gen, Genderbending, hero swap AU, i call her aeris because of reasons, sephiroth: fashion nerd, thirsty aeris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21632950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raisedbymoogles/pseuds/raisedbymoogles
Summary: Tifa's in trouble! What should we do? Why don't you dress up like a girl... Sephiroth?
Comments: 15
Kudos: 65





	Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gemma_Inkyboots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemma_Inkyboots/gifts).



> Written for my dearest 'Boots on the occasion of our 5th anniversary. Love you, sweetest. <333 ...and I show it with genderfluid SOLDIERs. :D

“Sephiroth, why don’t you dress up as a girl?”

It was a struggle to say it without giggling, even considering the danger Sephiroth’s... friend(?) might be in. Sephiroth was so _stone-faced_ all the time, tense and watchful even at rest, that it was hard to picture him looking anything but awkward in a dress - but at the same time, the long hair and the trim physique would make for a _stunning_ woman. Perhaps not to Don Corneo’s taste, but... definitely to Aeris’s, and the thought brought a glow of heat to her face even as she looked up hopefully into Sephiroth’s uncanny green eyes with what she hoped was an innocent _it’s the only logical solution!_ sort of expression.

Sephiroth’s face was mostly in shadow, the harsh orange lights of the Don’s front landing only serving to outline his high cheekbones and the smooth fall of his hair. Aeris watched Sephiroth’s brows draw together and held her breath. _He’s never going to go for it, he’s not going to-_

“Do you think I can pull it off?” Sephiroth asked, and Aeris’s breath escaped her in that giggle she’d been desperately trying to hold back all along.

*

The former Demon General might have been willing, but he admitted to Aeris in a low, worried voice (honestly the man was _adorable_ ) that he wasn’t sure there existed a dress that would fit him. “I have a hard enough time finding men’s clothes my size,” he admitted, and indeed, the SOLDIER uniform he wore was visibly too tight around the shoulders. Not that it did him a disservice, _ahem._

“We’ll have to get something altered,” Aeris agreed, pulling her mind firmly back to the task at hand. “Don’t worry, haggling is my specialty. We’ll get you something nice, cheap _and_ quick.”

“...normally you have to pick two,” Sephiroth murmured, which brought a bright smile to Aeris’s face - he _was_ learning! She’d make a slum survivor of him yet - and added, “I’m still not sure how well this is going to work. My experience with women’s formal wear is limited.”

“So’s mine, honestly.” Aeris patted his elbow. “Don’t worry, you only need to pass as a woman long enough to get into Corneo’s mansion. We don’t need to get too into it.” Sephiroth sighed and nodded, conceding the point. “Now - where’s that dress shop...”

*

The famous Sector 6 dress shop was _experiencing difficulties,_ it turned out, but when Aeris presented _my friend, who always wanted to look cute_ as the dressmaker’s newest model, the dressmaker perked right up. “A tough-looking guy like him?” he said with every evidence of growing delight, and Sephiroth was a good sport about it and agreed. “Well, this could be interesting. All right, what kind of dress do you want?”

Here, Aeris felt a little out of her depth. What she knew about fancy dresses was mostly from the odd ragged magazine from above-Plate, always several years behind the times at best. “Something... that feels soft,” she said, trying to focus on _classic_ rather than fashionable. “And something...”

“Slinky.”

Aeris had to take a moment to reel her jaw off the floor; the dressmaker just looked speculative. Sephiroth was tapping his chin, his eyes faraway. “Something slinky, preferably in a subtle shimmer fabric. Sheath style with a slit up the side to facilitate movement as well as to emphasize the legs.” He blinked, seemed to remember himself and offered a wry twist of a smile to Aeris. “I’m told they’re my best feature.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Aeris agreed, because _all your features are amazing_ was probably too much to say to a man she’d only met the day before. “But I thought you said you didn’t know anything about womenswear.”

“Well, I don’t,” Sephiroth said modestly. “Just what I’ve gathered from observation.”

The dressmaker laughed, slapping the table. “This job’s getting better and better! Come on, let’s go back to the shop and I’ll take your measurements.”

*

As the dressmaker patiently unpicked seams and sewed them back up again to make a dress that could cope with Sephiroth’s manly physique, Sephiroth helped Aeris pick out a dress of her own, and in the process he explained what he’d observed during the formal occasions he’d been obliged to attend as Shinra’s star general.

“Trends come and go,” he said, critically smoothing the fabric of a sparkly cocktail dress between his fingers, “but in general the idea is to project a sense of wealth and sexual desirability. Sleek, simple dresses tend to be more successful than the kind with ruffles or similar details, but I have seen successful dresses with those elements.”

Aeris poked his shoulder, amused. “Listen to you, mister ‘what I’ve gathered from observation.’ If you ever decide to retire from all the fighty business, you could get into fashion yourself!”

“Like I need the competition!” the dressmaker interrupted, while Sephiroth was still blinking over ‘fighty business’. “But yeah, you’ve got a good sense for women’s fashion. Don’t ever let anyone make you doubt your powers of observation, lad.”

“...understood,” Sephiroth answered, clearly baffled, but Aeris thought she understood what the dressmaker meant. She pulled another dress off the rack and held it up for Sephiroth to judge: a daring little number in red silk with a plunging neckline. “This one?”

Sephiroth examined it professionally, then nodded. “That one.”

*

“Attention to detail is key. It’s no good having a beautiful dress if you’re wearing combat boots underneath them.”

“I like my boots,” Aeris protested. She had to trot to keep up with Sephiroth’s longer stride, but there was such hunting _focus_ in his face that she couldn’t bring herself to protest. _This must be what he’s like in the field,_ she realized. “Besides, do you really think Don Corneo’s going to look at our _feet_ all that much?”

“It’s not him we have to impress, it’s his guards,” Sephiroth reminded her. “People pick up on incongruity even when they’re not consciously aware of it, and once their suspicion is aroused we won’t get anywhere. The success of this mission depends on us looking the part in every aspect.”

“...I don’t know how to walk in heels,” Aeris confessed, and that at last got Sephiroth to pause. Aeris saw his face change from focused to chagrined with the abruptness of a car hitting a brick wall, and despite herself she almost felt torn between laughing and apologizing.

Sephiroth beat her to it anyway. “I - forgive me,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t think.”

“You _were_ thinking,” Aeris pointed out. “About what danger your friend might be in.”

“Yes, but not at your expense.” Sephiroth turned to look at her - _really_ look, focusing on the young woman by his side rather than the goal ahead. “I’ve made that mistake before. I promise you, it won’t happen again.”

 _Gods, I want to hug him._ Aeris made herself settle for smiling at him, and promising herself that the instant he was comfortable opening up about what awful things had brought him to below-plate Midgar after being missing for five years, wearing a too-small SOLDIER uniform and a haunted look, she would listen to every word and then _hug the heck out of him._ And if he ended up wanting revenge on whoever mistreated him - no prizes for guessing who - well, she had an unmastered Fire materia and a tenuous connection to the Planet. She’d figure something out.

But in the meantime, they had shoes to buy. “I’ll look for something with tiny heels,” Aeris told him bravely. “How hard could it be?”

She was rewarded with exactly the outcome she was hoping for: a release of tension in Sephiroth’s shoulders, and warmth returning to his eyes. “I promise, you can always lean on me.”

*

It was a good thing monster hunting paid well, because even getting most things secondhand or bartered, dressing like two fancy ladies was _expensive._ Aeris found herself haggling over not only shoes (kitten heels for her, thank Shiva, but Sephiroth had said ‘they’ll do’ to a pair of black pumps with a four-inch spike), but jewelry, perfume, fancy underwear, and tiny, useless purses Sephiroth called “clutches” that _went with_ the shoes but couldn’t _match_ the shoes _seriously what the hell how much free time did top-Plate women HAVE._ Sephiroth tore through Wall Market like it was a nest full of dragons, no quarter asked for or given, and when Aeris began to flag he took over haggling over the price of tiaras while Aeris sat on a bench and caught her breath. _He learns fast,_ Aeris thought, watching Sephiroth flummox the shopkeeper into handing over two crystal tiaras in exchange for, of all things, a protein drink set.

“You’re a born bargain hunter,” Aeris told him, mostly teasing.

Sephiroth shrugged modestly. “I have a height advantage over most people; it makes them reluctant to challenge me. And the rest I learned from watching you.”

“Aww.” Aeris let Sephiroth test one of the tiaras on her for fit. He set it on her head, frowned at it as though it were a misbehaving lieutenant, then picked it up and began bending it into shape with his bare hands. “So, are we done?” she asked, fascinated by the display of strength and precision.

Sephiroth turned the tiara, squinting at it critically. “I suppose,” he answered, sounding not at all sure.

Aeris nudged him with the toe of her boot - and all right, after all their questing for satin and rhinestone finery she could kind of see his point about the boots. “Don’t be like that. Come on, spill.”

Sephiroth made a frustrated face, one Aeris suspected was directed at himself. “I’m worried about the things I _can’t_ hide with dresses and shoes.”

Aeris blinked. “I thought the shapewear was for giving you cleavage.”

“I meant my face.” Sephiroth sat down on the bench next to her, his movements so tightly controlled that Aeris could practically see him vibrating. “We’ve gone to so much trouble, but I worry that the guard will get one look at my jawline and it will all be for nothing.”

Aeris bit her lip. _She_ liked strong features, on men _and_ women, but the point of this exercise wasn’t to cater to _her_ tastes. (More than they were already being catered to, ahem.) “I could distract them with my cleavage?” she suggested, a joke that Sephiroth indulged with a reluctant half-smile - they’d both determined that even Sephiroth was more gifted than Aeris in the cleavage department. “Or - hm.”

“What?”

“An... acquaintance of mine does amazing things with makeup. Something about contours? But she’s out of town for the week so we can’t ask her.” She shrugged apologetically.

“Makeup.” Sephiroth glanced around hopefully. “Would anyone else know how to do it?”

“Not that I know of.” Now Aeris felt guilty getting Sephiroth’s hopes up. “Makeup’s just not a huge _thing_ down here, unless you’re performing, or...”

“Performing.” And that was clearly an I-have-an-idea voice, accompanied by Sephiroth catching her hand and tugging her to her feet. “Or perhaps...”

“Wait, where are we going?” Aeris demanded, already having to trot to keep from being pulled off her feet by Sephiroth’s purposeful pace.

Sephiroth glanced at her, wordlessly shortened his stride. “The Honeybee Inn.”

“...oh, I _see,_ ” Aeris said archly.

“They wear makeup as part of their jobs, correct?”

“You’re not fooling anybody.”

“On the contrary.” As the tacky neon sign of the infamous Inn glowed into view from down the alley, Aeris saw Sephiroth’s face outlined in pink and gold light, wearing a _real_ smile. “After this, I’ll be _very_ convincing.”

*

“Pssst - are you Aeris?”

Aeris didn’t answer right away - the trick with gross dudes was to not break eye contact. “That will be three hundred gil,” she said sweetly, and her customer blanched.

“Damn, woman, I could get a hotel room for less than that!”

“But what’s a nice stay in a hotel without fresh flowers?” Aeris said, which didn’t make _any_ sense even to her, but it seemed to baffle her customer into acquiescence. He paid up, Aeris wrote down his order, and as he wandered away Aeris turned to face the woman peering out at her from the Inn’s employee entrance. “Sorry about that - yes, I’m Aeris. Is everything okay?”

From her wry twist of a smile, the woman in the skimpy bee costume understood perfectly. “Your friend asked us to sneak you in,” she said, and beckoned. Aeris gratefully complied.

“Is everything okay?” she asked as the Bee led her in, suddenly plagued with visions of makeup everywhere and an upset Sephiroth.

Her host chuckled. “Oh, Seph’s an angel, sweetheart. We just had a brilliant idea.”

The room she led Aeris into was bright and busy, women buzzing like bees around a tall silver orchid. The woman who tipped her face up to receive a pat of pressed powder from an enthusiastic Bee was strong-featured, elegant, and _utterly gorgeous._ Aeris nearly dropped their shopping as the woman turned uncanny green eyes her way.

 _“Seph!?”_ she squeaked, and Sephiroth smiled carefully with lips that had been painted dark red. “Wow. I just - _wow.”_

“Wow is good, right?” Sephiroth asked, and was met with a half-dozen affirmatives. “Well, I’d say that’s a successful field test, then.”

The powder-patter tittered. “You’re so funny! And I know we’re supposed to say that but I really do mean it this time.”

“Thank you.” Sephiroth accepted the compliment with an ease and grace that Aeris had never seen on him before. “It’s all thanks to your skill.”

“Ain’t the first time we’ve done this, honey,” volunteered another Bee with a wry smile. “And it helps to have a lovely canvas to work with. Now, c’mere, young lady. Your turn.”

“M- _me?_ ” Aeris squeaked, even as Sephiroth graciously vacated the chair and being the center of the ladies’ attention. “Well...”

She _was_ curious, and the girl who’d done Seph’s makeup was reaching a hand out to her and beaming as if she could think of nothing better than to powder Aeris’s face too. With one last glance at Sephiroth - and yes, he was just as beautiful on second look - she took the girl’s hand and allowed herself to be swept up into the chair.

“You have lovely skin,” the makeup expert marveled, holding up a pallet of powders to compare with Aeris’s cheek. “This is going to be fun!”

Seriousness of their mission aside, Aeris had to agree.

*

“Um... are you Tifa?”

The woman in the spangly blue cocktail dress - simply cut, but very effective on her - glanced up, her expression wary. “Who are you?”

Aeris hesitated. Her fancy makeup and slinky red silk dress hadn’t so much lowered the door guard’s defenses as _dropped them like a drawbridge_ , but she was scrambling to think of a reason for _this_ lovely stranger to trust her. Luckily, a third voice intervened: “She is a friend. She assisted me in my mission to find you.”

Aeris fought the impulse to turn around, wanting to see the expression on Tifa’s face, and didn’t regret the decision: Tifa went from guardedness to relieved recognition to jaw-dropped shock with impressive speed. _“Sephiroth!?”_

Sephiroth joined Aeris at the bottom of the stairs: his hair swept up, his dress catching the light as shimmers of blue in the black silky fabric, his makeup flawless. “Tifa,” he greeted without a trace of shame, and Aeris found herself beaming, not even minding being outshone.

**Author's Note:**

> What's going on in this AU? Where's Cloud? What happened to Zack? Who knows? Not me! :D


End file.
